Candling for Beginners (Texas A & M Coturnix eggs at 7 days)

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Hello!

I've been playing around with a Little Giant still air incubator for a few months now. I gave up on candling my Button Quail eggs after I realized that I didn't know what I was doing. BUT...I'm incubating my first batch of Coturnix eggs (around 50, purchased on eBay) and this is day 7, so I thought I would give it another go. At first I thought I was looking for an air cell to indicate viability but, after noting my tenth consecutive air cell, it occurred to me that they may all have air cells on account of being turned in an incubator for a week.

So my question is, is there a candling stratagem for beginners--something cut and dry that I can't screw up with? Here's what I have so far:

Candle eggs in a dark room using a keychain-sized Maglight:
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1. If the egg has cracks or hairline fractures, discard

Is there any other criteria for discarding bad eggs which requires no skill to determine? Does an air cell indicate that the egg is or was fertile and developing? Should I keep all eggs with air cells? Or, does an air cell just assist in the process of candling and not tell me anything in of itself?

Thank you very much. I want to avoid tossing out any egg with a chance of survival and I am not experienced enough to feel comfortable looking for veins or comparing translucency, evaluating dark spots, etc.

Jennifer

 

[Stellar]

If you see veins or something moving there is something in the egg

Here are some pictures to give you a comparison.

The first picture is one of my silkie eggs at three days of incubation.

The second picture is a bobwhite at a week of incubation (there are veins) This egg hatched

The last one I am posting is the same silkie egg as previously but closer to hatch (this one also hatched

) You can see veins, and feathers

With coturnix eggs...You will be able to see something moving or veins. I will be posting a diagram that I drew later on. Internet is slow today

 

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Thank you! With the first "vein" photo, are the veins the small reddish mass in the upper center of the egg? They are abundantly clear in the last photo, but I'm still not sure what I'm seeing in the early incubation pic.

My eggs have enough blotches and spots that I'm not sure whether I could see anything subtle. I can definitely find an air cell by pointing the flashlight into the big end of the egg, but everything else is vague.

 

[secretquail]

good luck candling the quail eggs. It has never worked for me. The incubation isn't that long, best to wait it out, and toss em after 22 day, or so.

 

[warmfuzzyfeeling]

Yeah, I just keep thinking I am "supposed" to be candling the eggs. I don't mind just waiting to see what hatches, but I always go back to supposing that there must be a benefit or purpose to the practice. Sure I'm curious, but not enough to risk killing an embryo by trying to weed out the bad ones.

I just went over the eggs again and this time I noticed variances besides the spots on the eggs.

About 10 appear to be empty--they light up well and have a uniform clarity, except for the yolk. Of the 40 which remain, there were about 15 in which I could see veins running lengthwise and even what appeared to be gracefully swimming embryos! (Now, I hope this isn't a matter of the 'power of suggestion' and an overactive imagination.) Of the 25 or so other eggs, about 10 were inscrutable and dark, about 10 were veinous and inscrutable, and about 5 had a reddish glow and an even redder appearance in a large patch. I wonder if these are "blood rings" or whether a classic blood ring is actually ring shaped?

Thanks for the help,
Jennifer

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
In my first photo it was just a red blob. The veins appeared later on . If you look closely in the bobwhite egg you can see an embryo

It's cute!

 

[wpalmisano]

When you are learning to candle eggs, mark them with an X if you were going to throw them away and put them back in the incubator. If your "X" eggs hatch, you know you need to get a little more experience. I agree, that the hatch rate is poor on those little styro foam incubators, so throwing away a good egg is not really worth it.

 

[JJMR794]

Cournix Are Best Done The Ron Popiel Way, Just Like Using His "showtime Rotissery Roaster"--- Set It And Forget It.... Very Difficult To See Into Those Lil Speckled Eggs Until Almost The End And Then All You Can See Very Well Is Wether The Air Sack Is Formed. Now Bobs And Most Chicken Breeds- Very Different Story. Even Most Partridge Speces Are Easy To Candle And All Other New World Quail. Most Pheasant Eggs Prove To Be Challenging Too--- Very Dark And Difficult To Candle.

 

[aprophet]

on coturnix I have a coupla hens almost lay white eggs they are easy like bob eggs most with the speckled eggs I wait until day 5-7 and candle and if it glows it goes the rest of them I just let them cook until day 14 I candle again if any are still glowing I toss them. It is funny I have been hatching with a styro bator all summer the last coupla days I just hatched 15 out of 18 eggs with a hova bator this is day 17 they started hatching late last night and looks like they are finished tonight I will check the other 3 eggs in the morning

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Right JMR, who wants to bother kindling Coturnix eggs, if you do, you probably have too much time on your hands, perhaps another hobby is in order or bring in another breed? LOL

I sniff mine at day 10 and again at lockdown. I have never had a potential "bomb' hatching coturnix.